In a sweeping critique of Obama’s lead-from-behind foreign policy, Governor Mitt Romney today delivered a powerful, robust foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute.Speaking of the recent explosion of violence and upheaval in the Middle East, Romney said it is “time to change course in the Middle East.”

Punctuating his national security positions before his next presidential debate on October 16th with Obama (foreign policy will be the topic), Romney said, “That course should be organized around these bedrock principles: America must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose and resolve in our might. No friend of America will question our commitment to support them… no enemy that attacks America will question our resolve to defeat them… and no one anywhere, friend or foe, will doubt America’s capability to back up our words.”

Foreign policy expert and columnist, K.T. McFarland, today on television program ‘The Five’ (FOX News) enthusiastically exclaimed, ”I’ve been waiting 20 years for this speech! He [Romney] was channeling Reagan!” She also went on to say Romney’s “speech was actually really phenomenal and I commend him for doing it!” (MccFarland served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1985 and speech writer for Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.)

‘The Mantel of Leadership’:

Transcript:

I particularly appreciate the introduction from my good friend and tireless campaign companion, Gov. Bob McDonnell. He is showing what conservative leadership can do to build a stronger economy. Thank you also Congressman Goodlatte for joining us today. And particular thanks to Gen. Peay. I appreciate your invitation to be with you today at the Virginia Military Institute. It is a great privilege to be here at an Institution that has done so much for our nation, both in war and in peace.

For more than 170 years, VMI has done more than educate students. It has guided their transformation into citizens, and warriors, and leaders. VMI graduates have served with honor in our nation’s defense, just as many are doing today in Afghanistan and other lands. Since the September 11th attacks, many of VMI’s sons and daughters have defended America, and I mourn with you the 15 brave souls who have been lost. I join you in praying for the many VMI graduates and all Americans who are now serving in harm’s way. May God bless all who serve, and all who have served.

Of all the VMI graduates, none is more distinguished than George Marshall—the Chief of Staff of the Army who became Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, who helped to vanquish fascism and then planned Europe’s rescue from despair. His commitment to peace was born of his direct knowledge of the awful costs and consequences of war.

General Marshall once said, “The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.” Those words were true in his time—and they still echo in ours.

Last month, our nation was attacked again. A U.S. Ambassador and three of our fellow Americans are dead — murdered in Benghazi, Libya. Among the dead were three veterans. All of them were fine men, on a mission of peace and friendship to a nation that dearly longs for both. President Obama has said that Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues represented the best of America. And he is right. We all mourn their loss.

The attacks against us in Libya were not an isolated incident. They were accompanied by anti-American riots in nearly two dozen other countries, mostly in the Middle East, but also in Africa and Asia. Our embassies have been attacked. Our flag has been burned. Many of our citizens have been threatened and driven from their overseas homes by vicious mobs, shouting “Death to America.” These mobs hoisted the black banner of Islamic extremism over American embassies on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

As the dust settles, as the murdered are buried, Americans are asking how this happened, how the threats we face have grown so much worse, and what this calls on America to do. These are the right questions. And I have come here today to offer a larger perspective on these tragic recent events—and to share with you, and all Americans, my vision for a freer, more prosperous, and more peaceful world.

Today we launched a campaign called “I’m comMITTed” (read the important introductory post here.) As part of this campaign we want to highlight the experiences that many of you are having while you are make phone calls, post signs, volunteer at campaign offices, etc.

We want to hear your story! Each day we will highlight a different Romney supporter and post their story on our blog. Tell us how you’ve been helping, any interesting experiences you’ve had, and of course send us your pictures and videos.

Persons whose story we select to feature will win a free t-shirt and sticker from our store! Send those submissions to contact@mittromneycentral.com. Be sure to include your name (we will only publish your first name), your city and state, and put “guest submission” in subject line. Please note: we may edit submissions for grammar, spelling, and length.

A local campaign office in Virginia

Today’s submission comes from the Commonwealth of Virginia! Since we hadn’t requested any submissions yet I asked my in-laws if they would tell a bit of their recent trip to the local campaign office. Here they are:

My husband and I hooked up with a GOTV group in Northern Virginia last weekend. We were a little scared at first as this was our first time being involved in politics and our first time door knocking. But we feel like the future of our country is at stake in this election.

What a great experience! First of all, we felt like we were finally making a difference. Even though we live fairly close to DC in a mostly blue area, the people we met were generally receptive. The best news – of the people we canvassed, Romney had a huge lead over Obama despite what the polls may say.

We are excited to try it again this weekend!

We’re comMITTed!Linda, Fairfax, VA

I went out knocking on doors with a gentleman from Texas who had traveled to Virginia to help recruit the undecided voters. He said, “Texas is in the bag, but you guys in Virginia need some help. So I’m here.” All of the doors we knocked were either pro-Romney or were truly undecided – in which case we left a pamphlet. It was a non-threatening approach, but it told me a lot about the percentage of undecided voters who are really in favor of Romney.

One interesting episode. As we walked down the street, a man was literally running towards us from behind. When he got to us, I noticed that he had an “Our Lady of Sorrows” T-shirt. He was a former FBI agent who said he was disappointed that only his wife got to express her opinions when we knocked on their door. He said he has mailed a letter to EVERY Catholic Bishop in the United States, telling them that every Priest should be telling their parishioners to vote for Romney. I asked him, as a former Justice department employee, to tell me how he feels about Eric Holder. Well, he got red-in-the-face and then explained to me in very clear language that he felt Holder is a disgrace to the Department.

My afternoon was a small sample, but it was very encouraging to me.David, Fairfax, VA

When we launched MittRomneyCentral.com a little over three years ago we had just one purpose in mind: help Mitt Romney become elected President of the United States. In order to achieve that goal, we have worked hard to build our audience by providing an attractive website, informative daily updates, cutting-edge SEO, and outreach into the social media platforms. We continue to have great success and daily growth on Twitter (26K followers) and Facebook (76K likes). Each day we have several thousand return visitors to our website – some of the most engaged, informed and supportive fans of the Romney-Ryan team.

Building an audience is key to reaching our goal – but followers, fans, Facebook likes, and daily visitors are NOT the measuring sticks by which we will gauge our success. Our end purpose is not to entertain insatiable minds with news and commentary.

The purpose of MittRomneyCentral.com is to spur engaged readers into engaged volunteers.

It is an unfortunate reality that so many who are concerned with politics never do anything more than wring their hands with nervous hope that the things that matter will take care of themselves. They won’t, unless we act.

The time to delay and procrastinate has passed! No more cheering from the sidelines. No more excuses… It is time to get comMITTed!

ComMITTed to putting this country on a course of financial stability!ComMITTed to handing our posterity a country not burdened with crushing debt!ComMITTed to fighting the ills of liberalism, starting with firing Barack Obama!ComMITTed to saving the future of this great country we love!ComMITTed to do everything you can to elect Romney-Ryan on November 6th!

Today we launch this campaign with the hope that all of you will take that crucial last step to activism. We have a static page dedicated to providing information on ways you can best serve the campaign. GET STARTED HERE: http://MittRomneyCentral.com/comMITTed

As part of the “I’m comMITTed” campaign, we will also post daily highlights from volunteers, details of Romney campaign events in swing states, and continued instructions of how you can help. Look for more posts later today, and each day up until election day.

After Obama’s comatose debate performance last week, the very next day on the campaign trail, with teleprompter chugging along at full speed, wasn’t it amazing how Obama suddenly became animatedly bright-eyed and chatty? Without missing a beat or showing even a modicum of acknowledgment that he messed up royally, he continued and still continues to lie about Mitt Romney’s economic plan. Despite the fact that news outlets, and even Obama’s Deputy Campaign Manager, Stephanie Cutter, had to admit his false claim, Obama, his campaign officials, and his surrogates continue to flat-out call Romney a liar.

Following his embarrassing, cringe-worthy performance, the President’s immediate day-after-debate mocking of Governor Romney was a “na-na-na-na-na-na” display of petulant, smirky, childish egoism. (Eastwood was right about the empty chair.)

Brazen, boastful Barack…

Obama’s display reveals what a small, character-stunted man he is.

It’s astonishing to behold.

There was no lying from Romney. And, important to note, there was no post-debate gloating from Governor Romney.

New ad:

Here’s a fact Obama doesn’t want you to know: Under his economic plan, taxes will increase on the middle class by $4,000. Add this to your long list of reasons why Americans absolutely cannot afford or stand four more excruciating years of Obama’s fiascoes.

By Michael Ramirez

After nearly four deficient, failed years, Obama is blatantly showing a bit of the worst of himself in a repugnant attempt to convince Americans he now knows what’s best for our broke, broken nation.

Rob and Terry Ryan are dear friends and rank among America’s pre-eminent entrepreneurs, having successfully built many billion dollar companies. During a recent visit with the Ryan’s, Terry mentioned her recent presentation about Mitt Romney to the Pachyderm Club of Missoula, Montana. At my request Terry shared her message and with her permission we print it here. As an attorney, Terry provides a compelling and succinct argument in Mitt’s favor.

Hello, I am Terry Ryan and I am the Women for Romney Chair for Montana.

My husband and I have lived the American Dream.

Rob was born in Fort Apache in the Bronx. You’ve seen the movie… it is the worst slum in America.

We met when we were freshmen at Cornell University and married after graduation. I supported Rob through graduate school. However, when Rob was a graduate student, he had to work full time at the same time to pay off his undergraduate loans. You see immediate repayment was mandatory back then.

We learned from that experience and saved my law school tuition in advance. After my graduation we moved from Boston to Silicon Valley where Rob won a major award his very first year at Intel Corp. for authoring the IEEE specification for Ethernet.

Because of the award, he was recruited as ‘Vice President of Engineering’ by a start up, then, fired less than a year later. It was 1981. The Country was still suffering the Carter Malaise. Unable to find work, he was forced to start his first company. It was a miserable failure, but he did manage to sell it… after a year without any income. Seven years later the two of us founded Ascend Communications. That was a grand slam homerun.

Kliener Perkins Venture Capital funded us in 1990. In 1994 we took the company public with a 64% profit margin. In 1995 Business Week named us the most profitable stock of the year. We had a 921% gain. In 1996 we were added to the Standard and Poor’s 500 index. We had over 5,000 employees in 1999 when Lucent acquired Ascend for a record breaking amount.

You see, we had invented and manufactured nearly 90% of the hardware used for an infant industry called: The Internet. YES WE BUILT IT!

But times are different now. Americans are worried. Mitt Romney has talked to thousands of Americans all over the country – in company cafeterias, school gymnasiums, and factory floors. They are worried about their children, their jobs, their mortgages and their future. They are right to be worried.

All across our great land people are hurting. Some have lost jobs. Others are working two jobs to get by. Many have fallen out of the middle class and are struggling to get back. While the cost of living goes up and up, they are living paycheck to paycheck.

They are tired of being scared. While our government tells us unemployment has been above 8% for 43 straight months it’s actually worse than that! A full 16% of our workforce does not have work. If you were self employed like realtors and independent contractors, and you don’t have work, you are not counted. If your unemployment ran out or you just gave up looking, you are no longer counted. If you are young and looking for your first job, you don’t count. Half of our new college graduates cannot find decent jobs.

One in six Americans are below the poverty line today. More than when President Johnson declared the War on Poverty. We need to reconstruct our safety nets so they bounce people out of poverty, rather than trap them inside it.

In the past three and half years America has amassed an additional FIVE trillion dollars of debt, more than all other presidential administrations combined. After four years it’s clear President Obama’s policies are making things worse.

The current President is driving Americans apart, creating class warfare, demonizing success. It does not need to be this way! As Condoleezza Rice says: “America has never been a narrative of agrievement against others. It has always been one of empowerment and opportunity. Never have we said… I’m doing poorly because you are doing well.” If the Presidency can be won that way, we all lose.

This election is about restoring the promise of America. It is a stark choice between two visions for our country’s future. We don’t need more excuses. We don’t need more blame. What we need is a new President.

Romney and Ryan have a positive agenda that will lead to economic growth. It will bring widespread and shared prosperity. Their plan for a stronger middle class will get America back to work, balance the budget and put America’s finances on a sustainable path. They are offering solutions that are bold, yet specific. They are committed to helping create the 12 million new jobs America needs.

The Romney/Ryan plan to get America working again focuses on these five things:

First: Energy independence. We can achieve North American Energy Independence by 2020 if we take advantage of our domestic oil, our natural gas, our coal, our renewables and our nuclear power. Abundant, inexpensive domestic energy will not only create energy jobs, it will bring manufacturing jobs back to America.

Second: We must give our workers and our kids the skills they need to succeed. Our nation is failing in public education. For too long we have let the agenda of union bosses steer the agenda of our schools. It is time to put the students’ needs first. . . . Sandy Welch, who is running for Montana Superintendent of Schools told me about a conversation she had with a group of school administrators. She was advocating putting the students’ needs in the center of all other considerations. They looked at her dumbfounded! Finally one of them stammered, “we have never heard such a thing from any elected officials. It has always been all about Union’s rights! . . . It ‘s time for that to end!(more…)

Back in 2008, when then-Senator Barack Obama and all his charismatic aura swept onto the national stage as a candidate for President of the United States, he promised a lot of things. Among them, he loudly, proudly, proclaimed he’d bring the USA back to prosperity. Melanie McNamara believed in him. He convinced her. Like many, she voted for him. Three and a half years later, Obama has UNconvinced her.

“In 2008, I voted for Barack Obama. He doesn’t have my vote this time.

Why Mitt Romney? Being a woman, you think about your children and you think about their future. And what I want to think about is a future that has jobs. That our economy’s growing again. That’s important to women and it’s important to me.” – Melanie McNamara

The nearly incomprehensible national debt, over SIXTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS and racing, is a HUGE issue for women. Women are appalled that the back-breaking, crippling, immoral national debt will fall upon the young shoulders of the ones they sacrifice so much for – their children. The next generation will absolutely be clobbered with the crushing responsibility to repay the massive dollars borrowed and squandered by crony-concerned, devil-may-care, back-slapping, unaccountable politicians on Capitol Hill. Obama is chief among them. He’s recklessly added more debt than the first 41 presidents combined.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane…

Back in 2008, when Obama was finagling for the presidency, he ecstatically pinned the ‘unpatriotic, irresponsible’ label on President George W. Bush for his enlargement of the national debt:

“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.“ – Barack Obama, July 3, 2008

Once ensconced in the Oval Office, Obama put on his heretofore unknown amnesia hat; you know, the one that conveniently makes him forget his promises and do the complete opposite of what he pledged. He couldn’t wait to get his redistributive hands on Uncle Sam’s credit card. Obama couldn’t spend (and waste) fast enough – roughly $6 trillion in 3.5 years.

…[E]very “man, woman and child” now owes over $51,000. Obama’s unanimously-rejected budget would explodes that debt by $11 trillion …(more!) over the next decade. So much for his promises to thoroughly examine federal spending “line by line” to achieve a “net spending cut” while slicing the deficit in half by now. It’s almost as if he just says whatever he thinks will help get him elected, then does whatever he pleases once in office. This must stop. Mitt Romney’s new television ad, entitled “Dear Daughter,” makes the issue of inter-generational theft and reckless government spending very personal:

And, what have Obama’s policies done for women? Another ad from Team Romney/Ryan:

Obama’s policies are making it harder on women.

The poverty rate for women is the highest it has been in 17 years.

Over 5.5 million women are unemployed and their individual share of debt is over $50,000.

Fellow Americans, if you truly care about your children’s future, you must reject Barack Obama and Joe Biden. It’s okay to let them go. Don’t let them continue to steal the future from America’s children. You must vote for the two men who know how to get our economy going again, with rising salaries, and who will work with all their might to lower, not increase, our national debt.

In spite of all the post-debate lies coming from sucker-punched Obama and cohorts that Romney lied, Governor Romney’s preparation, performance, and facts/truth sharing was outstanding. Michael Reagan said again today on FOX News, “Romney gave the best debate performance since LINCOLN.”

After Governor Mitt Romney cleaned Obama’s clock at the first presidential debate in Denver, America’s Comeback Team, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, took time out from campaigning yesterday to talk with FOX News’ Sean Hannity. Here’s the interview:

We’ve seen the palpable, patriotic energy that exists between Romney and Ryan; it’s always great to see them together. Also evident is that they understand and respect each other. Competence recognizes competence. Mitt and Paul also genuinely enjoy each other’s company and that, combined with holding the House and taking back the Senate, is going to make for an outstanding, productive presidency. How fortunate we are that they are a dynamic, dynamite duo! Democrats are stuck with their two dingbats. No fluke the two of them ended up together; a knave needs another knave to cover his tracks. And, one can’t speak without a teleprompter and the other can’t be prompted to shut up.

Obama and Biden are conspiring, failed desperadoes. Without a blink, they and their fellow conspirators keep churning out lie after lie to hide that fact.

Romney/Ryan’s competence and commitment to actually solve the plethora of grievous problems Obama/Biden have foisted on us – to strengthening the principles our nation was founded on and making life better for 100 per cent of the American people – is the message we MUST broadcast non-stop.